Posted by Mishal on December 31, 2007, at 3:11:34
In reply to Re: Half-life means duration of drug action? » Mishal, posted by Maxime on December 31, 2007, at 0:54:04
> Hi
> A medication's half-life is the time it takes for the plasma concentration of a drug to reach half of its original concentration. So the half-life of a drug is how long it takes for half of it to be eliminated from the bloodstream.
>
> Once you have been taking the med, it takes about 4 half-life units for the concentration of a med in the system to reach a steady state. And that's what you are aiming for.
>
> Maxime
Hi Maxime,I know what half-life means. But what I need to know is how can a med with a very short half life work for the whole day taking it once or twice daily. Like the example of Serzone, its half-life is roughly four hours. That means, taking Serzone twice daily amounts to 4 + 4 x 2 = 16 hours. Therefor duration of action (here in the case of Serzone) is 16 hours. Still 8 hours are there with the med not being in our system.
Am I right? Or do I miss something?
poster:Mishal
thread:803347
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071225/msgs/803381.html